


End(lessly)

by BlueBloodBlueHeart



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Character Study, Comfort, Cyborgs, Established Relationship, Feelings, Light Angst, M/M, Philosophy, Poetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23242399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueBloodBlueHeart/pseuds/BlueBloodBlueHeart
Summary: What would happen if Robotnik tried to replace pieces of himself with a machine? What would that do to the human mind?
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	End(lessly)

**Author's Note:**

> Wowzie. I sure am cranking out a lot of bullshit. Lmao anyway. I like how this turned out, if you did too leave a kudos and comment.

He lived as he created. Endlessly.

Tight wires wind around mechanical forms under warm skin. Lights and sounds dance around the room replacing the crushing emptiness that would only serve as a stark reminder to what he lacked.  
He strived to be perfect in everything he did even though he lived his life imperfectly.  
Is it any wonder he wanted to change that?  
Replacement was easy, came second nature. First you got rid of the inferior parts and then you simply rebuild them. Make them better. That is what he did with everything he saw.  
And then he saw _him_.  
A man more human than any other person he had ever seen before. It was human in the way not how errors are but in the way perfection is. Perfection in the way only a human touch could get right. They were a stark contrast to each other. One simply the definition of human. So fundamentally flawed yet could never be improved upon. The other a robot in almost every sense of the term. Yet no matter how many parts he replaced he could never get it right. 

If you build a boat and slowly replace every piece of it with something new is it the same boat? What if there's one piece left. Is that piece what's keeping it the boat or is it simply a piece of the old boat in a new one.  
Metaphors are too confusing.  
If you are a human and you slowly replace every piece of yourself with robotics are you the same person? What if you kept your brain? Would your brain make your robotic body you or would it simply be a hard shell reminding you of the man you once were.  
Philosophy was never Ivo's strong suit. It was something much more suited to someone like Stone.

If a robot passes the Turing test are they still a robot or have they gained sentience enough to be granted the title of _alive_? How do you even call something alive? Where is the line? Stone was alive. Robotnik knew that for certain. But as time went on he started to think, and started to fear, that maybe he himself had died long ago. He had died when he had replaced his flaws with bits and pieces that broke far too often and grew too outdated for them to adequately be described as superior.

How do you go about your life when every day you have feared you have already died?  
How do you react when you realize you are falling in love?  
Is that enough proof to show you are alive? Or is it fake, simply forcing yourself to feel something out of fear of the alternative.

Ivo had always described robots as perfect. He knew he was no longer human but he saw enough flaws to realize that calling himself a robot wasn't true either. He wasn't anything really.  
There is a certain way you exist when you realize that you are completely and utterly alone in your experiences. In this existence you either seek out company so desperately it drives you insane or you destroy yourself so that the loneliness no longer could call you home because truly you weren't even there anymore.  
Ivo had, of course, chosen the latter.  
He was breaking.  
No I'm serious. His robotic body was breaking. Torn apart by the stress he was under and all Ivo could do was pray no one would notice. Of course things don't go as planned. That's the thing about love, it throws all plans out the window and hits the gas pedal until you're speeding down the highway and _God you've never felt so alive and-_

"Sir... are you alright?" Stone's worried face brought everything back to reality. A heavy hand, worn at the seams so that bits of silver metal shone through, sat numbly in the two hands of the man that was the only thing Ivo could be sure existed. He was sure because Stone's hands were very warm. And sure he couldn't really feel it but he knew that they were warm. That's what his cybernetics told him anyway.  
"What do you think?" Ivo was tired. Something he had felt for almost his entire life. But it was at a breaking point. It was enough that he let down his guard. Dared show himself to the one person he swore could never see him like this. Because what would happen when Stone learned how truly weak his boss was? He could leave, or he could stop following Robotnik's orders, he could do so many things and all of them made Robotnik even more tired when he thought of them.  
"I think... that you are strong. That you've _been_ strong. For a very long time. But nobody can be strong forever. I know I certainly can't. We all need moments to breathe. To look around and realize that not everything requires walls. It takes a great deal of strength to trust people. So if you trust me enough to have a moment of weakness in front of me just know that I could never think lesser of you for it. You are a great man Ivo." Something in Stone's words caused Robotnik to loosen. His shoulders dropped and he all but collapsed into Stone, leaning most of his body weight into the agent as he wrapped his arms around the man's waist.  
"You're wrong Stone. I'm not a man. I'm hardly a machine either. I'm just an amalgamation of broken parts trying to get by. All I am is metal and wiring protecting a fragile lump of nerves that are the only thing reminding me that I was once alive."  
"You are still alive. You never stopped being alive. You have to be alive because if you aren't then I will be in love with a dead man. And a dead man is hardly suitable for anyone to love."  
"What about widows?"  
"Widows love a man who is alive. They do not love the rotting corpse he has become. They love his memories. And in all the time I have known you, if what you say is true, then I will only have known you as a dead man. And then it is a dead man I have fallen in love with."  
There is something to be said about life. It is limitless. Anything can be alive in it's own sense of the word. There is no true definition of it. Not according to philosophers at least. Webster's dictionary can shove it up their ass.  
So they held each other close in that small moment that no one else would ever see. They held on for what seemed like eternity before drawing away with teary eyes. It doesn't matter which of them was crying. All that matters is that tears were shed over a moment that only existed once and would never exist again, as all moments do. And that means something.


End file.
